Strates Shows loses New York State Fair midway after six decades

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - A Michigan-based midway operator beat out James E. Strates Shows for the most lucrative contract at the New York State Fair, ending more than a half century of Strates' rides and games at the Geddes fairgrounds.

For the next decade, Wade Shows Inc., a century-old amusement company out of Michigan, will thrill roller coaster riders, guess ages, and serve up elephant ears at the Geddes fairgrounds, according to New York Agriculture and Market officials.

In the past decade, Strates paid the state a total of $10.2 million to run midway rides and concessions, according to the state comptroller's office.

The money-sharing details between Wade Shows and the state weren't immediately available this afternoon. Wade will pay the state $750,000 a year, according to the request for proposal. That's up from the $565,000 flat fee that Strates paid annually. The new contract also requires Wade Shows to share its ticket ride sales.

Technically, the state accepted Wade Shows' bid today. Now final negotiations will begin between Wade and the state to finalize details, including how tickets receipts will be shared. The state attorney general and comptroller must also approve the contract.

For more than six decades, the midway belonged to Strates, a Florida-based company working county fairs in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina and Florida. Its only other state fair is the Georgia-Carolina in Augusta, according to its website.

For the next decade, the New York State Fair will belong to Wade Shows, another carnival company that started as a family-run enterprise around Detroit. Now Wade says it plays more state fairs than any other amusement company, with contracts in Oklahoma, North Carolina, Missouri, Alabama, Delaware and Florida, according to its website.

"Really?" Wade President and CEO Frank Zaitshik said today after hearing the announcement. "I can't wait to share to the good news.'

Six bidders, including Strates, expressed interest in the contract. Three formally bid, including Wade Shows and Strates.

Wade Shows will bring at least 63 new rides, 25 food stands, 70 games and 25 novelty and other sales booths to this year's fair, according to Ag and Markets. Wade's inventory includes one of the two largest portable roller coasters in the country, according to the state.

"We couldn't be more excited about the new rides and attractions that Wade Shows will bring to the Midway of the Great New York State Fair this year," Acting Ag and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball said.

The change marks a historic shift for the fairgrounds, where Strates' workers and fair staff spent decades together. They saw fair directors, and the governors who appointed them, come and go. They shared generators and frightened moments during the Labor Day storm. Former Syracuse Mayor Lee Alexander married a daughter of the Strates empire.

For Strates, the New York State Fair was one of the largest and most lucrative stops along the northeastern section of its late-summer route, 12 days of extravaganza just after the Erie County Fair before turning back south toward Danville, Va.

"It's one of the top fairs we play," Strates spokesman George Weston said this morning, before receiving the news. "It's very important to the survival to the Strates family." Weston declined to comment after hearing Wade was selected.

Strates made $1.2 million to $1.3 million each year off ride ticket sales during each of the past four years, according to Ag & Markets. That doesn't include revenue the vendor made off Midway games and food sales, which Strates did not have to share with the state.

The state made $1.1 million to $1.2 million from Strates during the same time period, 2010 to 2013, according to Ag & Markets.

Weston, at 66, says he spent 35 summers at the state fair.

"I was there when the storm of the century" hit, he added, referring to the Labor Day Storm of 1998, a super wind storm that hit the last night of the fair, knocked out power and flooded buildings, and caused two deaths. "We pulled our generators out so people would have a safe place to go.

"For me, it's very personal," Weston said this morning. "It's not just business."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has yet to appoint a new fair director. The job has been vacant since October, when Thomas Ryan left after eight months. Frank Ferraro, a former fair official from then-Gov. Mario Cuomo's administration, confirmed recently he was interviewed for the current opening.